Facette is a new workspace building located in Belvédère, an urban district in Bordeaux, France. Designed by Amsterdam-based architecture and urban design practice Studioninedots, Facette is a response to the request for a place that provides the flexibility, collaboration, and diversity desired by today’s entrepreneurs. Facette’s communal spaces aim to foster and build social community. The design includes outdoor staircases that ascend from the ground floor, through a communal vertical garden with spaces for interaction, and onto a collective green roof terrace.
A grid structure is used to organize the building’s facades, creating visual cohesion. The facades are made from sand-colored pigmented concrete and reflect the spirit of Bordeaux's stone architecture. Window openings expand as they rise. To keep apace with modern-day working demands and ensure the building can adapt, flexibility is a key part of Facette’s design. Studioninedots chose to use a load-bearing, prefabricated facade; one of the two required staircases was placed on the building’s exterior, allowing the studio to minimize the core. Open floor plans can be reconfigured and arranged in a manner that meets evolving requirements.
The 5,200-square-meter (55,972-square-feet) building’s prime corner location on Belvédère’s central axis — Boulevard Joliot-Curie — inspired Studioninedots to create a transparent and open ground floor in which the workplace and public space converge. Facette balances on a slender base, ensuring there is ample room for shared activities.
“Impressive concrete arches create a strong visual appeal, expressing the creative ambitions of the space,” says Studioninedots. “It’s set to become the social heart, a collective and versatile space for work, relaxation, and meeting — or as we more often call it, the ‘WeSpace’.” (With a focus on human interaction, Studioninedots conceived the WeSpace as “a communal social space and thriving hub of a project.”)
The ground floor’s expansive glazing extends the building into an adjacent pocket park, a shared green space that connects with the neighboring building.
A vertical garden ascends from the small park, its outdoor spaces interconnected by open staircases. Extending across the entire width of the building, this provides effective cooling as well as pleasurable spaces for interaction and relaxation. The vertical garden leads to a communal top floor with a green outdoor terrace and extensive views across the surrounding landscape.
“The green facades and roofs enhance the urban climate by keeping the air cooler and increasing humidity compared to traditional buildings,” says Studioninedots. The design helps mitigate the urban heat island effect, and reduces particulate matter and air pollution. Green roofs collect rainwater which is then drained through the pocket park.
